Musings of an Akatsuki Wannabe
by Akatsuki210
Summary: Tobi has always dreamed of joining the Akatsuki. He just didn't anticipate the way in which that dream would be realized.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto or its characters. I wish I did, but I don't.

**Warning: **This story contains spoilers for the manga.

* * *

**Musings of an Akatsuki Wannabe**

"_But you don't have to take someone bad as your important person."_

"_No…even if you know they're bad…a person can't defeat loneliness."_

_--Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara_

_Prologue: For the Sake of a Precious Person _

The moment was just as I had seen it, several months before. The eight ANBU who had attacked us were all dead, but their jounin leader was still standing. He wore a Leaf forehead protector over his bald head, and a long trench coat over his jounin uniform. His face was scarred and stern, and he radiated killing intent. He was one of the Leaf's elite jounin, and his description in the information distributed to all Akatsuki members said this: "The Leaf's torture and interrogation specialist, the ruthless eliminator of threats to the village, Morino Ibiki."

A Chuunin Exam had recently been completed in Konoha, and the attendees from other villages were returning home. Among the new chuunin was the vessel of the four-tailed bijuu, a boy from the Hidden Village of Rain. We had been assigned to capture him—or, more specifically, _I_ had been assigned to do it. As one of the Akatsuki's newest members, the replacement for Akasuna no Sasori, I was determined to prove that I was worthy of my position. It had, after all, been my ambition to become a full member of the organization since the time I was five years old. That childhood dream had finally come true…but not in the way I had expected it to.

Anyway, we had been sent to capture the four-tailed jinchuuriki. By "we", I mean myself and my partner, Kataoka Akisane. Akisane was Orochimaru's replacement, and the only kunoichi among the Akatsuki. She had been assigned to the seven-tailed jinchuuriki, and I to the four-tails. We had already captured the seven-tails, and Akisane's Akatsuki ring linked her to its power. Now we only had to find my demon. He would be returning from Leaf to Rain after the Chuunin Exam, and we planned to ambush him on the way.

Unfortunately, Leaf had other ideas.

I knew that Leaf was going to anticipate an attack on Rain's jinchuuriki, and that they would have two squads of ANBU following the Rain team, waiting to protect them from us. I didn't know that one of their most elite jounin would also be present. The ANBU had been fairly easy to take out, but this guy was something special. With a single touch, he had activated the pain-sensing nerves throughout my body, causing me to crumple to the ground in agony and leaving Akisane to fight him alone.

She threw four shuriken at him. He dodged, but the shuriken changed their flight path and continued to follow him. I couldn't see the chakra strings that she had attached to the shuriken, but I knew they were there. Ibiki frowned and stopped dodging, allowing the shuriken to hit him. Then there was a puff of smoke, and a log fell to the ground in his place.

Akisane turned, correctly guessing that Ibiki would be directly behind her. "Lightning Element: Scorching Blast Technique!" A bolt of lightning shot from her outstretched hands towards Ibiki, but he raised his own hands and called, "Chakra Shield Technique!" A disk of chakra radiated outward from his palms, deflecting the lightning bolt, although the force of the impact did cause him to stagger back a few steps. By this time, I was getting to my feet, shaking off the effects of the torture jutsu he had used on me.

With a speed that most jounin could not have mustered, Ibiki formed another set of seals. "Wood Element: Binding Roots Technique!" Thick tree roots sprang from the ground and wrapped themselves around Akisane's body, holding her in place. Then the killing intent emanating from Ibiki increased by tenfold. "Secret Medical Ninjutsu: Fatal Strike Technique," he whispered. A green glow of chakra formed around one hand, and I saw, in my mind's eye, a terrible vision: that hand slamming into Akisane's chest, forcing chakra into her heart until the vital organ exploded.

I didn't think about my decision consciously. I'm not sure my mind was even involved on any level. My feet propelled me towards the two fighting shinobi, my arms pumping in a desperate attempt to get there in time.

I skidded to a stop between Akisane and Ibiki, and felt his hand smash into my chest.

* * *

A/N: Both of my previous fics were in third-person, so writing from a single character's POV like this is new for me. I know this prologue is pretty short, but the upcoming chapters will be longer. As always, reviews are welcome! 


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 1: First Impressions_

My name is Sawada Tobi, and I can see the future. Oh, I'm not omniscient or anything. I can't see _everything_ that's going to happen, just bits and pieces. And I can't control what I see. I can't say, "Show me what's going to happen in Konoha at 10am next Wednesday." I see what the universe wants me to see, not what _I_ want to see. Usually the things I see are somehow related to me or to other people I know, though. Also, the visions I have aren't very long—they usually last only a few seconds or minutes—and I can't see very far into the future. A few months ahead is about my limit.

I've had this ability for as long as I can remember. It's an advanced bloodline. When I was born, my left eye was blind and covered by a cataract. It stayed that way until I was about three. Then I started seeing things through that eye. At first, I was really confused, because what I saw through the left eye didn't match what I saw through the right eye. When I told my parents about this, they explained about the bloodline limit—they told me I was seeing the future.

Everything went along fine until I was about five. I was planning to enter the Shinobi Academy in my village—the Hidden Village of Grass, if you really want to know—when it happened. Grass had been fighting with Rain for a long time, and the war was going badly for us. The members of my family, having the same ability as I did, predicted each one of the defeats we suffered. The other villagers blamed my family for what they saw—they assumed that because the Sawada Clan had predicted the defeats, it had somehow caused them. One night, they came to the Sawada compound bearing weapons, determined to eradicate our clan. My mother grabbed me and fled our home. A few of the shinobi of the Grass spotted her leaving, and followed. I felt three shuriken hit her in the back, and she dropped me. I ran like hell, but I wasn't fast enough. I stumbled and fell, and saw a man looming over me with a long, thin sword. He swept the sword down and I closed my eyes…and nothing happened.

I looked up to see why I wasn't dead, and saw…something…standing between me and my assailant. It looked generally man-like, except that it had a Venus flytrap growing out of its shoulders. Half of its body was black, and the other half was white. It wore a long cloak patterned in black and red. One of its hands was holding the Grass-nin's wrist, keeping his sword at bay. The other hand was wrapped around the man's throat. It squeezed, tightening its grip until the man's windpipe was crushed. It dropped the corpse unceremoniously to the ground and then turned to me.

I think I felt, at that time, the most complex mix of emotions I have ever felt. There was obviously sorrow for my murdered clan, and anger at the men who had killed them. I was happy to have escaped, but also somewhat afraid of the strange being who had saved me. Who was he? _What_ was he?

"Hey kid, are you all right?"

I only nodded, not trusting myself to speak. The man—as he turned to face me I saw that he did indeed have a man's face--had a soft, calm voice that seemed designed to put people at ease. It contrasted greatly with his appearance.

"What's your name?"

"S-Sawada Tobi, sir."

"Tobi-kun, you have a very special and unique ability. Would you like to meet people who see that ability as something to be valued instead of something to be feared?"

It is a terrible thing to know, at the age of five, that your clan is dead and you are alone in the world. My clan was dead, but this man was offering hope that I might not be alone.

"Very much, sir."

The man bent down and scooped me up in his arms. "What's your name, sir?"

"Zetsu."

As the leaves of the flytrap closed protectively over me, another voice issued from the man's mouth. This second voice was much harsher than the one I had heard earlier. **"Hey, that guy's not getting up again, and I'm hungry."**

The first voice sounded annoyed. "We can eat later. Right now, let's just leave before we end up having to fight a whole town."

"**Okay, okay. But once we get the kid back to headquarters, I want to _eat_."

* * *

**

On the way back to "headquarters," I learned a lot about my rescuer. His clan name is Taenaka, and he was also originally from the Grass Village. Like me, he was born with an advanced bloodline. Like me, he lost his clan when they were attacked by townsfolk who were frightened of their abilities—and in this case, also frightened of their strange appearances. The Venus-flytrap-growing-out-of-the-shoulders thing is a normal manifestation of the Taenaka bloodline. The black-and-white-body-and-two-voices thing is not. Apparently, the same mutation that causes the advanced bloodline screws up the development process of twins born into the clan. Instead of having two separate bodies, the twins share one. Traditionally, they also share a single name.

A lot of people who hear both halves of Zetsu speak assume that one twin is good and the other evil. In reality, it's more complicated than that. Zetsu's two halves just have completely different personalities. One is harsh and brutally honest. He is also the half that's in control during fights, because he's a ruthless and capable warrior. The other half is much kinder and gentler. He excels at stealth, but doesn't take much of an active role in fights, because he's too soft-hearted to ever actually hurt anybody.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention one other interesting fact about Zetsu: he eats corpses.

Considering his rather unique physiology, this actually isn't as strange as you might think. Lots of plants feed on decaying animal matter, and Zetsu _is_ part plant. Since he's a ninja, whose job is essentially to go around killing people, the easiest source of sustenance for him is the body of a defeated enemy. This also has the added advantage of removing all evidence of the assassination.

* * *

"Headquarters" turned out to be a large compound set into a mountainside in the Mountain Country. (The people there are apparently not very creative when it comes to naming things.) Upon our arrival, I found myself being presented to the other members of an organization called "Akatsuki," to which Zetsu apparently belonged. The first member I met was Hoshigaki Kisame, a blue-skinned man who towered over me back then. (Actually, he still does—Kisame is so tall he towers over small trees.) Being a little kid, and having the same amount of tact as any other little kid, I promptly blurted out, "You look like a fish!"

Kisame is the most hot-headed of the Akatsuki, and the one who possesses the most raw physical strength. The last living member of the Hoshigaki clan of the Hidden Mist Village, he also possesses the Hoshigaki clan's ceremonial sword, the Samehada. The Samehada has been passed down from one generation of the clan to the next since the time of the Shodaime Mizukage.

I'll let you in on a little secret about the Samehada: it's alive. It's not even really a sword—at least, it wasn't originally. You see, the nine bijuu aren't the only demons who inhabit our world. There are a bunch of less powerful minor demons too, and Samehada is one of those. Legend has it that the minor demons were spawned when the bijuu took human form and produced children with humans. If that legend is true, Samehada is presumably the offspring of Isonade, the shark bijuu. Anyway, Samehada used to live in the waters around the Mist Village, and caused a lot of trouble back in the day when Shodaime was still around. It (no one knows if Samehada is male or female except Kisame, and he's not telling) caused storms, attracted sharks and kraken, and generally led to the deaths of a lot of fishermen and shinobi. So the Shodaime Mizukage issued a challenge: he would fight Samehada one-on-one. If he won, Samehada would serve him and his descendants for as long as their bloodline continued to exist. If Samehada won, the entire Mist Village would relocate away from Samehada's territory.

You've probably figured out by now that the Shodaime Mizukage was a Hoshigaki, and that he won. Now here's the really interesting part: Samehada, like most demons, has the ability to change its shape. In order to fulfill its part of the bargain, Samehada transformed into a sword, and has been fighting for the Hoshigaki clan ever since.

One of the things I've seen through my left eye is Kisame fighting a Leaf-nin with a weird bowl haircut and a green spandex jumpsuit. In that fight, Kisame gets pushed to his limits. The Leaf-nin is on the verge of defeating him, and he knows it. So he uses his last resort jutsu, a secret technique that not even his partner Itachi knows about. He throws Samehada at the Leaf-nin, and as it's spinning towards the guy, it _changes_. The Leaf-nin is very surprised to find himself being punched in the head by a blue-skinned humanoid figure covered in scales with fins on its back, legs, and forearms. For the first time in over 400 years, Samehada reverts to its true form and fights alongside its master.

Showing much more restraint than is typical for him, Kisame did not kill me for my perceptive comment about his appearance. In fact, he soon became one of my favorite members of the Akatsuki. He's boisterous, talkative, and always speaks his mind. He's a much less complicated person than the others, and as such is one of the easiest to be around. Why the Leader paired him with Itachi, who has all the emotion of a brick, I will never know.

* * *

Zetsu left to find something to eat (at the time, I didn't know _what_ he ate), leaving me in Kisame's care. Kisame, who is about as well-suited to childcare as Jirayia is to celibacy, seemed at a loss as to what to do, so I helpfully told him, "I'm hungry." While he went into the kitchen to find something for me to eat, I wandered around the room we had been sitting in. It seemed to be a common area, with a few armchairs, a couch, a coffee table, and a television. Sitting on top of the television was a small bird, which was currently engaged in preening its feathers. Walking over to it, I saw that it was not a flesh-and-blood bird, but rather was made of clay. I was astounded. Every detail, every feather, was perfect. The bird was even _moving_. I did what any child will do when confronted by something he finds fascinating—I reached out to touch it.

"Don't touch that!"

The voice that admonished me was neither Kisame's nor Zetsu's. I turned around to find another member standing in the entrance to the room. He had long blond hair tied up in a ponytail at the top of his head, with some of his hair falling over one eye. He was shorter and of a more slender build than either Zetsu or Kisame. "Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Deidara, yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm Sawada Tobi, sir. Zetsu-san brought me here."

Briefly, I told Deidara how Zetsu had saved me, and why I had needed saving in the first place.

"So you have a bloodline limit, yeah. That explains why he brought you here, yeah."

"Did you make that?" I pointed to the bird.

"Yeah. It's part of _my _bloodline limit, yeah." He held up one hand, and I saw that there was a mouth sitting in the center of the palm. This didn't shock me as much as you might expect—after all, I had already met a man with a plant growing out of his shoulders and another with blue skin and gills.

At that point, Kisame returned with some ramen, and Deidara told me a little about himself while we shared a meal. He was currently the youngest member of the Akatsuki, having been born in the Stone Village only 15 years before. Unlike myself and Zetsu, his bloodline was not an established one. It was new, something that had never occurred before. At first, his parents thought the mouths on his hands were just a birth defect, and forced him to wear gloves all the time to cover them. One day, when he was about five years old, Deidara was playing with some clay, and one of the mouths ate some. At first, Deidara was in a panic: he knew you weren't supposed to eat clay, and was afraid he would get sick. To his surprise, the hand-mouth spit the clay back out in the shape of a perfectly formed bird. That was the day Deidara became an artist.

He entered Stone's Ninja Academy, and continued making clay sculptures as a hobby. Throughout this whole time, he kept his hands covered when in public, taking a secret pride in the ability that his parents thought was a defect. He usually carried one of his sculptures with him, pretending that he had made it the normal way and delighting in his friends' praise of it. As a young genin, he had been sent on a mission that went terribly awry. With his sensei and one of his teammates dead, the other badly injured, and himself being attacked by three enemy ninja, he called up his last reserves of chakra. It flooded through his body, and he felt something stirring in the pocket of his vest. He was just as surprised as anyone else when his sculpture flew out of his pocket, landed on the lead enemy ninja—and blew itself to kingdom come.

His remaining teammate looked at him in a bemused sort of way. "I didn't know your sculptures were weapons."

"Neither did I, yeah."

Deidara soon became known as a demolitions expert, and was quickly promoted to Chuunin. When he was 12, a civil war broke out in the Earth Country…and Deidara and his parents ended up on opposite sides. One night, his parents tried to kill him while he slept. Unfortunately for them, he had anticipated an assassination attempt, and set traps. His parents were powerful shinobi, but they were no match for their son's specially-made weapons.

If Deidara's side had won the civil war, he would have been hailed as a hero. Unfortunately, it did not, so Deidara was instead vilified as a traitor. He was sentenced to death and imprisoned to await execution. His captors were apparently not the brightest people in the world, because they imprisoned him in a cell with the plain ground for a floor, and most of the ground in the Earth Country is clay. Needless to say, Deidara had no difficulty in escaping, and he fled the Stone Village. Eventually, he found his way to the Akatsuki.

"Hey, want to see what I was telling you about, with my sculptures?"

"Sure." I thought Deidara was going to take me outside to stage his demonstration. Instead, he simply dragged me and Kisame to the opposite end of the room, and activated the chakra trapped in the bird I had noticed earlier. The bird exploded, taking the television with it.

"**Dammit, Deidara, what did you blow up now?"** Zetsu had returned. A few minutes later, I was assigned my very first mission as a subordinate of the Akatsuki: Help Deidara Shop for a New Television.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 2: Money and Religion_

It's fairly rare for all nine members of the Akatsuki to gather at the same time. When Zetsu brought me back, he, Deidara, and Kisame were the only members residing at the headquarters. After a few days, Zetsu and Deidara left on a mission, and two of the other members returned: Orochimaru and his partner, Sasori.

I disliked Orochimaru from the moment I saw him. He exuded an aura that practically screamed, "Don't trust me!" He was the kind of person that you didn't want to turn your back on, even for an instant.

Orochimaru did do one thing that made me happy, though: he brought Kimimaro to the Akatsuki.

Kaguya Kimimaro was, at that time, only around seven years old—a couple of years older than me. My face lit up as soon as I saw him, because here was someone close to my own age, someone I could play with and be friends with. At first, I completely ignored Orochimaru and Sasori, instead running up to Kimimaro and holding out my hand. "I'm Sawada Tobi! What's your name?"

Kimimaro blinked, looking at me in a way that, when I look back on it now, breaks my heart. He looked as though this simple expression of greeting and friendship was completely alien to him. It was as though it had been so long since anyone _wanted_ to be friends with him that he had no idea how to react to it. Hesitantly, he stretched out his own hand and said softly, "I'm Kaguya Kimimaro."

Kisame, who was sitting on the couch nearby, suddenly stiffened. "He's a Kaguya?" Quickly, he stood up and steered Orochimaru out of the room, presumably wanting to talk to him alone for some reason. Sasori wandered off soon after, leaving me and Kimimaro alone.

"So, um, are you related to that Orochimaru guy or something?"

Kimimaro smiled. His smile was like his handshake: halting and uncertain because he hadn't done it in so long. "No, I'm not related to Orochimaru-sama, but he saved me. My real family…is all dead."

I nodded. "Mine too."

From that day on, Kimimaro and I became close friends. With our real siblings dead, we adopted each other as brothers.

* * *

That night, I couldn't sleep. The Akatsuki headquarters was huge, with many passageways and rooms. It was extraordinarily hard to find one's way around, which I think was done intentionally, to confuse anyone who tried to infiltrate it. I had been given a small bedroom down the hall from the kitchen. The previous nights, I had no trouble falling asleep, but on that night I lay awake, staring at the ceiling.

I had been in emotional shock from the deaths of everyone I loved. Meeting the Akatsuki members, settling into my new home in the Mountain Country, and trying to find my way around the maze-like compound had kept my mind occupied for the past few days. Now the intense sorrow aroused by my family's destruction was having a chance to assert itself. I remembered my father's smile, the way my mother used to sing me to sleep when I was a baby, my older sister's laughter. And I realized that I would never experience any of those things again. Tears began to pour down my cheeks, and I buried my face in my pillow.

I was startled out of my sad reverie by a knock on the door. Wiping my tears away, I opened it, and saw a boy who looked to be in his early teenage years standing there. Despite his young age, he was wearing the Akatsuki's uniform, and I remembered Kisame saying that his name was Sasori.

"May I come in?" he asked.

I nodded slowly, and Sasori sat down at the chair that went with the desk in my room. "Are you all right?"

I wasn't sure what to say to this. I was definitely _not_ all right, but I didn't know if I wanted to confess that to this person whom I didn't know. "I…miss my parents," I finally responded.

For some reason, that seemed to strike a chord with Sasori, and he stared down at the desktop. "I understand," he said quietly. "My parents…are also dead."

"What happened to them?"

For a long time, he was silent, and I was afraid that I had offended him by asking such a personal question. After a few minutes, he said, "They were betrayed. The Kage of my former village sent them into an ambush in order to draw out the ones planning the ambush."

Although I had only met a few of the Akatsuki so far, I was beginning to see a pattern. All of them had lost everyone precious to them, and found refuge among this eclectic group of shinobi. "My parents were betrayed as well. The townspeople feared my clan's bloodline limit and tried to wipe us out. I would have died too, if Zetsu-san hadn't rescued me."

"Hmm…people often fear those with unusual abilities. The weak always fear the strong, and seek to subjugate them. But among us, you need have no fear: we will make you strong enough that no one can hurt you again." Sasori stood, and walked to the door. He paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder at me. "Tomorrow morning, meet me in the dojo at the end of this hallway. I will teach you a few simple jutsus, so you can begin to become stronger."

* * *

Sasori did indeed teach me the first shinobi jutsus I ever learned: Henge no Justu and Bunshin no Jutsu. It quickly became apparent that I didn't have a very large chakra reserve, but what I did have, I had extremely precise control over. Sasori said this made me well-suited to learning medical ninjutsu, but those were difficult and I would need to train for a few years before I could start learning them.

Kimimaro trained with me too, and I soon learned about his bloodline limit. We often sparred, and he invariably won at contests of taijutsu. I looked up to all the Akatsuki members, but Kimimaro was particularly devoted to Orochimaru. Orochimaru trained us sometimes too, but I much preferred working with Sasori.

It was a couple of months before I met any more of the Akatsuki members. One spring morning, another pair returned to base from an extended mission in the Wind Country. One of them was tall and broad, and reminded me, in appearance at least, of Kisame. The other was shorter and slimmer, with slicked-back blond hair and bright green eyes. He wore his robe open to the stomach, with no shirt underneath it.

"Hey, who are these kids?" the tall one, who was named Kakuzu, asked.

"Hmm? Oh, them. The dark-haired one is Tobi-kun. Zetsu-san brought him here. The other one is Kimimaro-kun. He's Orochimaru-san's. They both have bloodline limits," Sasori explained.

I soon learned that Kakuzu was the Akatsuki's treasurer. The Akatsuki organization is not motivated by money, but even S-ranked shinobi have to eat. And buy clothing. And have places to stay when they travel. Now, all of the various shinobi countries have a list of missing-nin or enemy ninja from other nations whom they would like to see dead. Generally, they offer a respectable sum of money to anyone who kills a person on that list. (Truth be told, all the Akatsuki members are on at least one of these lists themselves). The Akatsuki earn the money they need by taking down such wanted individuals and collecting the reward offered by the country that wanted that person killed. They also collect secret jutsus or powerful artifacts and sell them on the black market, to the highest bidder. Kakuzu is in charge of collecting this money and allocating it equitably to the Akatsuki members. He's a stoic man who doesn't speak often. He'll take any opportunity to earn more money for the organization, and is always on the lookout for new such opportunities.

"Huh," he said, looking at myself and Kimimaro speculatively. "Hey, Hidan-san and I have to go to the Rice Country to make an exchange. You kids want to come? If you're going to work for us, you might as well start seeing what our missions are like."

I broke into a wide grin immediately. "Seriously? You want to take us with you? That's awesome!"

"Hmph. We're leaving tomorrow at dawn. Be ready by then."

True to his word, Kakuzu and his partner met Kimimaro and I at the entrance to the stronghold as the sun rose above the horizon the next day. As we descended into the main part of the Mountain Country, he explained that he and Hidan had stolen a powerful object from the nomadic samurai of the Wind Country. It was an oil, extracted from a rare plant, that could cure most forms of poisoning. "If it's so useful, why not keep it for yourselves?" asked Kimimaro timidly. He still seemed to be getting used to the fact that he could ask questions or voice his opinion without being punished for doing so.

"Oh, we know what plant the stuff is extracted from, so we can make it ourselves. Of course, we don't plan on telling our client that."

The client was a feudal lord of the Rice Country. He was quite happy to receive the vial of oil, and paid Kakuzu a large amount of money. Hidan then insisted on taking a brief trip outside of the city, so that he could perform a ritual to thank the gods for the success of our mission. Kimimaro and I looked at each other quizzically. Both of our families had believed in the gods, and prayed to them on occasion, but there were really very few rituals involved. Birth, coming-of-age, marriage, and death were the only events that merited religious rituals among our people. For something as small as the success of a routine mission, a quick prayer would suffice.

Hidan led us to a small hill well outside of the city. Plains and rice paddies stretched around us in every direction. Kakuzu sat down and began counting the money from the feudal lord, making notes in a notebook and muttering to himself. To our great shock, Hidan took out a wooden stake and stabbed it into his chest.

"Hidan-san! What are you doing!" I ran forward, wishing that I knew at least one medical ninjutsu. "Kakuzu-san, help!"

Hidan arched an eyebrow and looked at me reproachfully. "This is the ritual. I must give a sacrifice to the gods, to thank them for allowing me to complete my mission successfully." Reaching a hand to his chest, he took some of the blood from his wound and smeared it onto the grass, making a symbol that I had never seen before. Laying on his back in the center of the symbol, he began to pray out loud.

Throughout the whole exchange, Kakuzu had not even looked up from his notebook. Kimimaro and I looked at each other, and shrugged. We had never heard of a religious ritual that required the practitioner to injure himself, but Kakuzu didn't seem particularly concerned—and we couldn't have stopped Hidan even if we wanted to.

On the trip back to the Mountain Country, Hidan told us a bit about his religion and how he had acquired his faith in it. In the Shinto religion, there are many gods, and the one Hidan worshipped is called Amatsu Mikaboshi. Mikaboshi is the god of chaos, evil, and the darkness that resides within every human soul. Hidan had been born into the Matsushita clan of the Rain Village, which carried a powerful bloodline. As a young child, Hidan had the potential to manifest that bloodline someday, but had not done so yet. The Cloud Village, jealous of that bloodline, had launched a raid intended to capture a Matsushita child. They thought that a child would be easier to capture—and easier to break. Hidan was the child they captured. In their attempts to make him reveal the secrets of his clan's ability, they did things to him that no human being should have to endure. Anger, hatred, and a desire for revenge—in short, the "darkness of the human soul" that I referred to earlier and over which Mikaboshi holds dominion—were the only things Hidan had to keep him alive. Finally, he was rescued. When his cell was broken open, he thought that his rescuers were from his village, perhaps even his own family. But they were not. They were from the Wind Country, and had not even known Hidan was there when they launched their attack. Still, they were allies of the Rain, and so they healed Hidan's many injuries and brought him back to his people. But what truly changed Hidan was still to come. You see, one might expect that, upon discovering that a child of their village had been kidnapped, the Rain might do something about it. Launch a rescue mission, or send out ANBU to gather intelligence telling them who had taken the kid, or something. But the Rain—and even Hidan's own clan—had given him up for dead. It wasn't that they had attempted to rescue him and failed, or that they had been unable to find out where he was being held. They hadn't even _tried_. They had simply assumed him lost, and abandoned him to his fate.

It is said that light and darkness, good and evil, wage an eternal battle inside the heart of every human being. In that moment, when Hidan learned that his own family and village had abandoned him to torture and eventual execution, the last tiny flame within his heart went out—and it was given over entirely to darkness.

Kakuzu and Hidan took us on a few more missions with them, and we began to learn something of the world outside the Mountain Country. I was given a mask to wear to hide my left eye, partly because having two overlapping fields of vision that show entirely different things is confusing as hell, and partly so that no one would recognize me as the last survivor of the Sawada Clan. I was thrilled to be helping the organization that had given me a home, and was eager to prove myself useful to them. Kimimaro was just as happy to be serving the organization that Orochimaru was part of. It took us a while to get used to Hidan stabbing himself in the chest after every successful mission (sometimes I wonder what he would do to himself if a mission ever failed), but we soon realized that the wounds he inflicted on himself healed at a superhuman rate. He never even lost enough blood to be in any danger. Of course, listening to him pray out loud for nearly an hour got tedious after the first few missions. By the fifth mission I completed with him and Kakuzu, I had started making silent prayers of my own: _Dear gods, please give Hidan-san laryngitis.

* * *

_

A/N: So, in Chapter 317, which just came out yesterday, it turns out that Tobi and Deidara are partners. Since I've already posted the prologue with Tobi and Akisane as partners, I'm not sure whether I'll keep it that way and just have the story be slightly AU, or have some kind of explanation of Deidara being away so that Tobi and Akisane get partnered up temporarily. But I won't be getting back to the Tobi vs. Ibiki fight for a couple of chapters, so I have some time to think about that.

Oh, and for all the other Itachi fans out there, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about him. He just hasn't joined Akatsuki yet.

I hope you're all enjoying the story—please review!


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 3: Friendship and Betrayal_

The Akatsuki continued to train Kimimaro and myself, taking us on missions with them and occasionally sending us on simple missions of our own. Both of us became more adept at using our bloodline limits—my visions became clearer and more frequent, and Kimimaro learned the first of the hereditary taijutsu moves known as the "Five Dances." When I was eight years old, Deidara returned from a mission with a young girl about my age. Her name was Kataoka Akisane, and Deidara had found her in the Lightning Country, near the Cloud Village. Like me, she had inherited her clan's bloodline limit—in this case, an ability to manipulate the weather—quite strongly. And like me, she had been the only survivor of a massacre that resulted when the other villagers came to fear her clan's power. Deidara knew that such a unique and formidable ability could be a great asset to the organization, so he brought the child back to the base with him.

There is, perhaps, one reason besides the power of our abilities that explains why the Akatsuki took us in: loyalty. The Akatsuki have many subordinates who serve them out of a desire for money or power. Such mercenaries would switch sides in an instant if someone made them a better offer. The three of us, on the other hand, would never betray those who saved us, even if our lives depended on it.

Well, Akisane and I wouldn't, anyway. At that time, we thought Kimimaro wouldn't either. His betrayal was something that even I didn't foresee until it was too late.

* * *

Young ninja usually train in three-man teams, so it was no surprise when Akisane joined Kimimaro and I in our training and on our missions. It was also around that time that Kimimaro began to manifest the symptoms of the illness that would eventually claim his life. No one knew what the disease was—even the Akatsuki members didn't know what to make of it. Despite his recurrent bouts of fever, trembling, and general malaise, Kimimaro was still the strongest of the three of us.

Although we were being trained as shinobi, we were still children, and we sometimes got into trouble, as all children do. On one occasion, we found Hiruko, Sasori's prized puppet, sitting inert and empty in the hallway outside the dojo. Sasori was presumably inside the dojo, training with his real body. "This thing is amazing," Akisane remarked. "I mean, can you believe Sasori-san controls something this sophisticated from the _inside_?"

"How do you suppose he does it?" I asked. "Is it all chakra strings, or are there levers and buttons and stuff inside that he uses to move it?"

Akisane looked up and down the hallway, and a mischievous expression crossed her face. "Let's have a look inside and find out."

I grinned and lifted the Akatsuki robe that covered Hiruko. "Here, there's a panel inside that looks like it opens up. I bet that's how you get in." Working together, Akisane and I opened the panel and climbed inside.

"Uh, guys, are you sure we should be doing this? Sasori-san might get mad," Kimimaro said worriedly.

"Not if he doesn't catch us. You can stand guard and warn us if you hear him approaching the door of the dojo."

"Hey, look at this! There's a seat in here!" Akisane pointed to a sort of bench that did indeed provide a place to sit inside Hiruko. Both of us hopped up onto it.

I noticed several dimples in the wood of the puppet, and I could sense a dull chakra embedded in them. "I think these are attachment points for chakra strings."

"Phew, it's dusty in here," Akisane complained, punctuated by a sneeze.

I shrugged. "Well, he's a puppet himself, so I suppose it doesn't bother him." Suddenly, an image flashed through my left eye: a pale, delicate hand resting on a doorknob. "Uh, Kimimaro-san, is anyone coming?"

"I don't hear anyone," he said, then poked his head inside the panel. "Hey, can I take a look now?"

"Yeah, sure," said Akisane. "Hey, Tobi-san, move over so there's room for Kimimaro-san."

At that moment, Kimimaro stiffened and quickly withdrew his head from Hiruko's interior. "Er, hello, Sasori-san," we heard him say.

"What are you doing?" Sasori's voice was cold and suspicious.

"Er…I was curious about Hiruko and I wanted to have a look inside. I'm sorry."

"Where are Akisane-kun and Tobi-kun?"

"Er…I don't know."

"Damn!" Akisane cursed softly. "What are we going to do?"

"Shh, maybe if we're quiet he'll believe Kimimaro-san and go away."

"Believe Kimimaro-kun about what?" We looked up and saw Sasori glaring through the panel in Hiruko's side.

"Er…"

* * *

It was not until five years after I had first been brought to the Akatsuki that I met the man who founded the group and who gives them their orders. Throughout the shinobi countries, there are many rumors, each more outlandish than the last, about who leads the mysterious organization Akatsuki. None of those rumors have hit on the truth of the matter. The truth is simply this: over twenty years ago, a young shinobi of the Grass Village named Kimura Hidoshi rose through the ranks of his countrymen to become Kage. It had always been his dream to lead the Grass, and he molded himself into the most outstanding ninja his country had ever seen in order to reach that goal. But when he finally achieved his lofty ambition, he found himself disappointed. He was expected to protect the shinobi, who were all vastly weaker than he was, and the civilians who were too weak to defend themselves and so needed shinobi to defend them. He described his position as nothing more than being a "glorified babysitter." So in the midst of a great battle between the Grass and the Stone, he faked his own death and fled in search of opportunities to become truly strong. In time, he sought out other shinobi with the same mindset, and devised a great plan: to capture all nine of the bijuu and harness their power, putting that power to whatever use the fledgling organization saw fit. Sasori was the first to be recruited into the Akatsuki, followed by Zetsu, Orochimaru, Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Deidara.

The day I met the leader was one of those rare days on which the entire Akatsuki gathered at the hideout in the Mountain Country. Kisame had captured the jinchuuriki to which he was assigned. The Akatsuki were preparing to extract the demon from its jinchuuriki, and for this the leader needed to be present. All of the members were gathered outside the entrance to the headquarters, while Kimimaro, Akisane, and I waited inside, peering around the side of the cave mouth and hoping for a glimpse of the mysterious leader. Soon enough, he came into view around the last curve of the narrow ledge that led to the entrance of the Akatsuki base. Although he was neither particularly tall nor particularly broad, he was an imposing man. His hair was light brown in color and spiky, and his eyes were the golden color of honey. He looked to be in his forties, and the chakra that radiated from him was the strongest of any I have ever felt.

"Have all of the preparations been completed?" he asked brusquely.

Sasori nodded. "Yes, Hidoshi-dono." The Akatsuki are a proud bunch (and, truth be told, a bit arrogant at times), but all of them treated the leader with the greatest respect.

"Good." The leader stepped past the group of red-and-black-clad men, then stopped. "The three chakra signatures inside, are those the children you spoke of?"

The three of us looked at each other, then tentatively walked out from the entrance to stand before the leader. I swallowed hard. The aura of power resonating in the air around this man was so strong that it felt like a weight pressing down on me from all sides. "I am Sawada Tobi, sir. These are Kaguya Kimimaro and Kataoka Akisane, my teammates, sir." I bowed deeply from the waist and waited for the leader to say something.

He looked at us for a long time, his eyes moving slowly from one to another. "Your abilities are strong. In time, you will be of much help to the Akatsuki."

Reassured by those words, I grinned behind my mask. "We intend to be, sir!"

"May I ask a question, sir?" inquired Kimimaro. His face was pale, and his voice softer than usual. He had been having one of his bad days.

"You may."

"Everything I have heard about the bijuu suggests that they are beings of immense power. How will you keep this one from escaping once it has been removed from its host?"

"Like this." Suddenly, the leader was standing in the middle of the huge cavern that formed a sort of entryway to the main part of the Akatsuki base. He had moved so quickly that we had seen no trace of his motion. It was as though he had simply teleported from one location to the other. He knelt and placed one hand flat on the ground. Amid a plume of smoke, a gargantuan statue appeared. It had nine eyes, all closed, and its hands were upraised and manacled. "This statue will imprison the bijuu, and Kisame-san's ring will link him to it, allowing him to access its power."

The Akatsuki members leapt into the air, landing lightly on the fingers of the statue. Kisame made a Kage Bunshin, which left the room and then returned carrying an unconscious teenaged boy—the container of the bijuu. The Kage Bunshin placed the boy on the ground between the hands of the statue and then disappeared. The statue's mouth slowly opened, and a blast of energy engulfed the jinchuuriki. The chakra was so intense that Akisane, Kimimaro, and I had to raise our hands to shield our faces.

The extraction of the bijuu from its jinchuuriki took three days. At the end of that time, the three of us returned to the entryway in time to see the bright energy receding into the statue's mouth. The jinchuuriki lay on the ground, limp and pale. Slowly, Kimimaro approached him and laid a finger against his neck, feeling for a pulse. "He's dead."

Akisane and I walked forward to stand on either side of Kimimaro, who was looking down at the boy's body. The boy was older than us, but still very young, perhaps 15 or 16. I had killed before, on missions, but somehow this was different. When I had killed, it was because the other person was trying to kill me, in a fair fight—or as fair as fights can get between shinobi, anyway. This boy had been knocked unconscious, prevented from fighting back.

The leader must have seen how disturbed I was, because he jumped down from his position on the statue and came to stand in front of me. "This is the way of the shinobi," he told me. His voice was a bit softer than usual, but still filled with absolute confidence in what he was saying. "A shinobi, no matter how young, accepts the risk of dying and the necessity of killing. And this is something we had to do, for the sake of our dreams."

* * *

Being trained by nine S-ranked shinobi is an advantage that few young ninja have, and so our strength increased at an amazing rate over the next few years. By the time I was 14, the three of us were easily ANBU-level. The Akatsuki had entrusted more difficult missions to us, and we were allowed to complete these missions on our own more and more often. My desire to become a full member of the organization had only grown as time passed. The Akatsuki seemed like they could do anything. No enemy could stand against them, and there was no task too difficult for them to complete. I wanted, more than anything, to be that strong, to become truly an equal in their eyes.

Our strength, of course, was not the only thing about us that changed. Kimimaro's voice became deeper, and my own body seemed to undergo an exponential increase in height. And it seemed to me that Akisane had changed overnight. Suddenly, she had breasts and hips and a smile that could melt any man's heart in an instant. Being a shinobi, she was more muscular than the average girl, but she was still unmistakably a woman, and I sometimes felt like I would be perfectly happy if I could just look at her forever.

On one warm summer afternoon, the three of us were taking turns sparring with Kisame. It was Akisane's turn, and Kimimaro and I watched the intricate dance of swordplay taking place in front of us. Akisane used her speed and agility to her advantage against the much larger and stronger Kisame, and the fluidity of her movements entranced me. Kimimaro, being the perceptive person that he was, noticed this. "You know," he said, "Orochimaru-sama told me a story once about his old teammate, Jirayia. He said that when Jirayia liked a woman, he would tell her, 'Your eyes are like the stars, your voice is like the voice of an angel, and your body is as beautiful as the sakura tree in bloom.'"

I looked at Kimimaro skeptically. "That sounds kind of corny."

Kimimaro shrugged. "Orochimaru-sama said it always worked for Jirayia."

Jirayia was famous for his womanizing, so I figured that Kimimaro was probably right. Later in the evening, as we gathered to greet the newly recruited ninth member of Akatsuki, I edged close to Akisane and mustered up as much courage as I possibly could.

A lone dark-haired figure in ANBU garb was making his way along the ledge toward the entrance to the base. Keeping my eyes fixed on the horizon beyond him, I took a deep breath and said, "Akisane-san, your eyes are like…"

Akisane grabbed my upper arm excitedly and pointed to the figure ascending the ridge, cutting me off as if she hadn't even noticed I was speaking. "Dear gods, _look_ at him. He's _beautiful_."

Apparently, what always worked for Jirayia doesn't work for me. At least not when there's an Uchiha around.

* * *

Although he was not much older than us, Itachi had been accepted into the Akatsuki as a full member. He possessed the Sharingan, which alongside the Byakugan, is one of the two most powerful bloodline limits in the world. He had been named an ANBU captain of the Leaf at the age of 13. And of course, he had single-handedly destroyed one of Konoha's most powerful clans.

Naturally, the question that everyone in Konoha asked themselves in the days following the Uchiha massacre was, "Why?" I think I may be the only person besides Itachi who knows the answer. You see, a short time after he joined the Akatsuki, I had another one of my visions. Itachi and Kisame were on a mission, and Itachi was hit with a poisoned kunai. The pair still managed to vanquish their enemy, but the poison had already begun to take its toll. It was not fatal, but it left Itachi feverish and sick for a couple of days. Kisame brought him to an inn in a nearby town, and left to find some medicine that would speed the healing process. In a fever-induced delirium, Itachi began to speak, tossing and turning in his sleep. He spoke of a hidden power of the Uchiha bloodline, an ability to control the chakra of other beings, even ones as powerful as the bijuu. The Uchihas tried to bring the most powerful of the bijuu, the Kyuubi, under their control using this ability. Unfortunately, they underestimated the power of the Kyuubi, and their plan backfired. The Kyuubi broke free of their control and was predictably rather pissed about the whole affair. So it attacked the village housing the people who had tried to control it. In the wake of Kyuubi's devastating attack, the Uchihas did not admit their mistake. Instead, they covered up their indirect responsibility for the disaster, hiding it from the rest of the village. And they kept the secret of their ability hidden as well, fully intending to perfect it and use it again some day. Knowing that a new attempt to use this power would probably produce results as devastating as the first one, Itachi set out to destroy the clan, eliminating everyone with the potential to use that ability. But when he was confronted by his younger brother, he simply could not bring himself to kill the boy. So instead, he gave the boy a task: to become strong, to hate him, and one day to fight him in a battle that would claim both their lives.

* * *

Although learning the motive behind Itachi's actions gave me some sympathy for him, I couldn't help resenting the fact that he'd entered Akatsuki at such a young age. He had achieved something effortlessly that I had worked towards for years. And it didn't help that Akisane had developed something of a fascination with him. "I mean, he hardly ever talks, he never shows any emotion, he has these weird lines under his eyes, what's so attractive about that?" I complained to Kimimaro.

"Hm?" Kimimaro looked up, blinking in a way that clearly indicated he hadn't heard a word I'd said.

"Never mind." We were practicing our shuriken (or in his case, finger bone) throwing, and I was hurling my shuriken at the targets rather harder than was necessary.

"Tobi-san…can I ask you something?" Kimimaro had stopped throwing his finger bones at the targets and was looking pensive.

"Yeah, sure."

"If…if someone who was precious to you, more precious than anyone else in the world, asked you to do something, would you do it?"

I thought about Zetsu, and about Kimimaro and Akisane. "Of course! Even if I had to risk my life!"

"What if…what if you had to hurt someone else to do it?"

"We're shinobi. Almost every mission we have requires us to hurt someone. But we do it to help the Akatsuki, because they're precious to us."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right." Kimimaro returned to his practice, but he still seemed disturbed. We had been having a lot of assassination missions lately, and I wondered if that was affecting him.

Sometimes I wish my bloodline limit was more reliable. If I'd known what Kimimaro was really talking about, I'd have given him a different answer.

* * *

It was a few days later that the shit, as they say, hit the fan. I had been reading a scroll that Sasori had given me which described a few medical ninjutsus, when the premonition hit me. Orochimaru's demented grin, a flare of purple chakra, a clash of minds, the scarlet gaze of the Sharingan. Orochimaru had found a way to transfer his soul into another body, and was determined to use it to take Itachi's Sharingan for himself.

I jumped up from my chair, scattering scrolls and papers everywhere.

"What's wrong?" Akisane looked up from her own scroll, immediately sensing that something was amiss.

"Itachi-san and Orochimaru-san are fighting. Orochimaru-san's trying to kill him!"

By the time I finished the second sentence, she was on her feet and out the door. I hurried after her, summoning all my chakra and looking around for Kimimaro.

A truly spectacular sight awaited us in the chamber where the bijuu had been extracted. A massive three-headed snake sat in the center of the room, hissing and writhing. Orochimaru had the sword of Kusanagi out, and he and Itachi were firing various ninjutsu at each other. Somehow, Itachi was dodging all three of the snake's heads while simultaneously countering every jutsu Orochimaru threw at him.

My bloodline limit was the only thing that kept Orochimaru from killing me outright. I saw each of his moves in my mind's eye a split second before he made it, just barely giving me time to dodge. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the snake's three heads hit the ground independently of its body, and then Akisane was fighting Orochimaru too.

In fictional stories about people who can see the future, their attempts to prevent an event often end up causing that very event. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my warning to Akisane was what distracted her and created an opening for Orochimaru. While my right eye was keeping track of Orochimaru's strikes and blocks, my left eye saw the sword of Kusanagi slashing through an arm that was too slender and feminine to be my own. "Watch your arm!" I hollered, and in the instant that she turned to look at me, Orochimaru brought the Kusanagi down, cutting cleanly through Akisane's left forearm just below the elbow.

Within the next few seconds, Itachi had thrust Akisane into my arms, sliced off Orochimaru's right hand, and plunged the Sannin into the hell that is Tsukiyomi. Meanwhile, I tried my best to stop Akisane's bleeding and keep her from going into shock. I succeeded in doing both of those things, but I knew that loss of a limb usually meant the end of a shinobi's career.

Do you know the real meaning of the words "killing intent"? I thought I did, but I never truly experienced it until that day. Looking up at Orochimaru as he staggered to his knees after the Tsukiyomi, I felt an overwhelming bloodlust flow through me, pushing any other thoughts away. In that moment, I knew only one thing: I wanted Orochimaru _dead_. Destroying him, punishing him for what he had done, was all that mattered. I vaulted to my feet and rushed towards him, green medical chakra glowing around my arm. Normally, this chakra is collected around one finger to make a scalpel, but I was using it to make a sword. I fully intended cut Orochimaru in half. I think I might have been able to do it too—between having his hand cut off and enduring whatever torture Itachi had subjected him to in the world of Tsukiyomi, he was in no condition to dodge or counterattack. Still, I felt a prickling in the part of my mind that activates whenever I have a vision. I ignored it, too consumed by pure rage to pay attention. So it took me completely by surprise when I found myself being impaled by Kimimaro's femur.

Our faces were only inches apart, and I stared at him in shock. Looking back on that moment, I wonder if I just imagined the regret in his eyes. I don't think I did.

I collapsed to the floor, and Kimimaro escaped with Orochimaru. "Did Kimimaro…did he really…?" Turning towards the voice, I saw Akisane laying a short distance away. Tears and blood streaked her face, and her voice was weak.

I only nodded. Black spots were floating across my field of vision, but suddenly I saw a scene that was crystal clear: a gray-haired man with glasses bending over Orochimaru, tending to his wounds. "Orochimaru…won't die…" I said. Then I passed out.

* * *

I would have died if it hadn't been for Sasori. One of his human puppets was a former medical ninja, and he used this puppet to heal the injury Kimimaro had given me. He also constructed a puppet arm to replace the one that Akisane had lost. Placing the wooden appendage against the stump of her arm, he used a special medical jutsu to stimulate the growth of both human cells and wood, so that the biological and artificial parts of the limb would meld into each other. This process created a perfect seam and made it possible to mold chakra with the puppet arm, but it was also very painful. Akisane cried out and grabbed my hand, squeezing hard enough that her nails drew blood. I didn't mind.

The arm Sasori made for her was stronger than steel, and each hollow finger held poisoned needles that could be fired from the fingertips. Still, it took some practice to learn how to use it, and I had to take my recovery slowly as well. For me, getting over the shock of Kimimaro's betrayal was harder than overcoming my physical injury. I had never trusted Orochimaru, but I had viewed Kimimaro as a brother. He was the one who had tried to distract Sasori when Akisane and I hid inside Hiruko. He was the one who had told me about Jirayia's "foolproof" pickup line. He was the one who had completed numerous missions with Akisane and I, saving our lives on more than one occasion. Was Orochimaru really so important to him that he would betray us for the Sannin's sake? Apparently so.

* * *

In an unspoken agreement, Akisane and I both trained relentlessly so that we could complete missions meant for a three-man team with only two people. At seventeen, we were as strong as the average jounin.

One of our missions took us to the faraway Wave Country, a small island nation. We had been ordered to deliver a secret scroll stolen from the Stone Village to a man named Gatou. The scroll had been offered for sale on the black market, and Gatou was the highest bidder. Kakuzu was beside himself with happiness because Gatou had paid an exorbitant amount for the scroll.

The Wave Country was cold, and wet, and poor. It was a rather depressing place, a place where the people seemed to have lost all hope. Most of the buildings looked like they were on the verge of falling apart. The building where we had been instructed to meet with Gatou was easy to find—it was one of the few that looked like someone had bothered to take care of it. There were two people standing outside, flanking the door. One was a tall, muscular man with a sword almost as big as the Samehada. He wore a Mist forehead protector, and his chest was bare. On the other side of the door stood a much smaller and younger person with long hair and a Mist ANBU mask. As soon as we approached, the big man placed a hand on the hilt of his massive sword. "Who are you, and what is your business here?" he barked.

"My name is Sawada Tobi, and this is Kataoka Akisane. We're here to deliver something which Gatou-sama has bought."

The big man released his sword and nodded. "Haku, take them to Gatou-sama."

The masked boy pushed open the door of the building and led us in. We found Gatou sitting in a well-appointed parlor, leafing through some papers that looked like invoices. Two men stood towards the back of the room. Both carried katanas, but neither appeared to be a ninja. _Samurai or other mercenaries, perhaps._ Whatever they were, it was quite clear that they were Gatou's bodyguards.

Once again, we introduced ourselves, and presented the scroll to Gatou. He seemed delighted to have it, and one of his bodyguards handed us a suitcase full of money. Akisane inspected it quickly, then frowned. "Gatou-sama, I'm afraid one of your subordinates has made a slight mathematical error. This is only two-thirds of the agreed-upon amount."

Gatou smiled pleasantly. "You must be mistaken, young lady. That suitcase contains the full amount you were promised."

I pulled out the mission orders Kakuzu had given us. "No, our orders state the amount we are to receive quite clearly. If you are unwilling to pay that amount, I'm sure we can find someone else who will not be so hesitant." I didn't mention the fact that if Gatou didn't pay up, he'd most likely wind up dead. Kakuzu would not be happy to hear that the Akatsuki had been cheated, and an unhappy Kakuzu was _not_ a pretty sight.

Gatou's face hardened. "You will take the amount you have been given and leave. If you try to force me to pay more, the results will be most…unfortunate." This seemed to be the cue for the two bodyguards to step forward and unsheath their swords.

I formed the hand seals for Kage Bunshin, and a copy of me appeared behind one of the bodyguards. I myself ran towards the other one. In unison, my clone and I hit the two men with the same attack: a medical ninjutsu that cut the muscles in their wrists, forcing them to drop their swords. Then we laid standard chakra scalpels against their throats. Akisane, meanwhile, had faced off against Haku. She held a kunai against the boy's throat, but he also had a senbon needle poised against her neck right over the jugular. One of her hands gripped the boy's other wrist, and his hand was paused in the middle of a seal. Apparently, he had tried to activate some sort of jutsu and she had seized his hand to stop him.

"You know, it will be cheaper for you to pay the full amount we agreed on, rather than have to replace your guards after we've killed them," I told Gatou.

Gatou grimaced, pulled out a few more stacks of bills from somewhere, and threw them into the suitcase. "Take your money and leave, and I don't want to ever see you here again!" I allowed my clone to dissipate, and Akisane and her opponent slowly lowered their weapons from each other's necks. I picked up the suitcase and we left as quickly as we could.

"Do you think Gatou will get mad and send some of his people after us?" Akisane asked.

"Maybe. We should probably get out of the Wave Country as fast as we can." To this end, we sped up, darting and weaving through the streets to get back to the docks. As I was shifting the briefcase from one hand to the other, I bumped into an older man who carried a huge scroll.

"Hey, you kids watch where you're going! You almost made me drop these important bridge blueprints into the mud!"

"Sorry, sir!" I called back over my shoulder, and we continued on.

* * *

A/N: Wow, this chapter turned out a lot longer than the previous ones. I'm planning for there to be one more major chapter and then a relatively brief epilogue, which will pick up where the prologue left off. 


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 4: Visions_

Over the next several years, Akisane and I were kept busier than ever as the Akatsuki stepped up their efforts to capture the bijuu. The five-tails was obtained, and everyone was seeking information on the location of the others. In the middle of one meeting about the subject, Itachi announced quite matter-of-factly that he knew the location of the most powerful bijuu of all, the Kyuubi. It was in Konoha, Itachi's home village. Of course, the place had probably changed since he'd left, and the defenses and capabilities of its ninjas might be different. It was decided that gathering some intelligence before launching an attempt to capture the Kyuubi might be prudent. Since all the Akatsuki members were S-ranked missing nins who would be recognized in an instant, the information-gathering task fell to us. We even had a perfect cover story to explain why we were supposedly in Konoha: we had come to watch the Chuunin Exam.

"I can't believe I'm wearing this stupid outfit. How am I supposed to fight in this?" Akisane complained and fidgeted with the sleeves of the ornate kimono she was wearing.

"We're not supposed to fight. We're just supposed to observe and gather as much information as we can about Konoha's defenses and the capabilities of its ninjas—especially the Kyuubi kid."

"Still, why do I have to wear this thing? I look like a frigging geisha."

"I notice you weren't complaining about the outfit when Itachi-san was around to see you in it."

"Shut up."

I have to admit, it _did_ feel odd to be wearing fancy civilian clothes that were not designed for fighting. We were supposed to be the son and daughter of a wealthy merchant from a city in the Water Country, here as spectators at the Chuunin Exam. Akisane was wearing the traditional clothing of an upper-class woman, and I was wearing the male equivalent—plus an eyepatch covering my left eye. The hardest part of this subterfuge was _acting_ like civilians. Shinobi and civilians act, move, and even think differently. A shinobi moves lightly, on the balls of his feet, prepared to react to an attack at any moment. He is constantly observing his surroundings, darting glances in every direction, listening for the sound of movement, feeling the vibrations in the ground and of the air currents. Civilians just wander around, talking loudly, completely oblivious to everything around them. To keep anyone from realizing that we were shinobi, we had to act like typical tourists. This meant pointing and exclaiming loudly at every store we passed and pretending to be amazed by the speed of the shinobi who passed us in the streets. Most of all, it meant pretending not to notice the shinobi who were, like ourselves, in plainclothes, keeping an eye on the ninjas from other villages who were visiting for the exam.

In order to get lodging in Konoha, we had to arrive several days before the Third Exam actually began. This was fine with us, as it gave us plenty of time to walk around the village and get a sense of its defenses. We made note of the location of guardposts, the patrol routes the ninjas took through the village, and the number of ninjas in each group of guards. We did have some time to relax as well, and on the day before the exam, Akisane suggested that we visit the local hot spring. I've never been a big fan of heat and steam, so I left while Akisane was still in the spa. Walking around the outside of the place, a realization struck me. The women's bath was enclosed by a large wooden fence, but I spotted a place in the fence where there was a small gap between adjacent boards. Kneeling down by the gap, I looked in. Sure enough, there was Akisane, lounging in the bath with several other women who also seemed to be visitors to the village.

"Well, it looks like someone else has found my spot."

I jumped and whirled around. Crouching down beside me was a large man with white hair and a forehead protector that, instead of a village insignia, had the kanji for "Oil" written on it. Lines of red paint descended from each eye down over the cheek, making it look like he was crying bloody tears. "Er, hello, sir. I'm sorry, I just…well, there's this girl, and…" I trailed off, thinking I was going to get in trouble for peeping.

The man chuckled to himself. "Don't worry young man, I know exactly how you feel. I only come here to do research for my books, of course," he said, brandishing a notebook. He winked at me. "Maybe we can do research together."

I grinned. "Sure, why not?"

Peering through the gap between the boards, the man started writing in his notebook. "Raven black hair, piercing blue eyes, perfectly shaped…"

Suddenly, a voice rang out from inside the bath. "What was that?"

_Oh shit._ Of _course_, after working together for so long, Akisane had become attuned to my chakra and could sense when it was nearby. Not to mention, the author beside me clearly had some ninja training, because he was emitting a powerful chakra of his own. My partner couldn't help but notice it.

"I think I heard something outside," said another voice.

"I think we'd better run," I told the man.

At that precise moment, someone cleared their throat behind me. The author and I turned around to find ourselves looking at a group of extremely irate towel-clad women, including Akisane.

"Tobi-san. What. Are. You. Doing."

"Uh, this old man got lost, and I was trying to direct him to…"

"Lost? Ladies, please, I was just explaining to this young man that it's very wrong to peek at women…"

The glares the women were giving us made it clear that we weren't convincing anyone. So we did the only thing we could.

We ran for it.

* * *

Akisane spent the rest of the day threatening me with a variety of horrible fates. These included, but were not limited to: being tied up and delivered to Hidan as a sacrifice for his god, being forced to look into Itachi's eyes while he was practicing the Mangekyou Sharingan, and being hit repeatedly in the head with a borrowed Samehada. Luckily, her anger cooled down after a few hours when she remembered that we had an important mission to accomplish. Really, I don't know why she got so upset—I mean, she does the exact same thing whenever Itachi's bathing in the hot spring at Headquarters. Kunoichi are hard to understand sometimes.

On the day of the exam, we headed to the stadium along with what seemed like half the population of the continent. Everyone was excited about the upcoming matches, especially because Itachi's kid brother was one of the contestants. We, of course, were more interested in the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. We had been given orders to pay special attention to his skill level and capabilities.

"Hey, look at this," I said, examining our tickets. "Kakuzu-san actually coughed up enough money to get us good seats."

"Mm-hmm." Akisane was engrossed in a brochure which listed the match-ups and the order in which they were to occur. "It looks like Naruto is fighting a Hyuuga—that should give us a good idea of his skills. He'll need everything he's got to beat one of them."

"Hey, theirs is the first match too—we'll be able to get the information we need quickly."

"We should watch Sasuke's match too—his brother might want to know how strong he's gotten."

As we settled into our seats, a premonition flashed across my mind: a pillar of smoke rising from the village walls, and three huge snakes smashing buildings. _Orochimaru. He's going to attack Konoha sometime in the near future. I have to remember to report that._

"The first match," announced the proctor, "is between Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji." A cheer went up from the crowd as the Third Exam began.

As expected, Neji began the match by activating his Byakugan and sliding into the characteristic Jyuuken stance. Naruto promptly used Kage Bunshin to make several copies of himself. Akisane had a notebook out, in which she was scribbling notes on Naruto's moves. Neji destroyed the first five Kage Bunshins that Naruto created…so he generated several dozen more.

"Holy shit!" Akisane exclaimed, standing up from her seat. "Did you _see_ that? How much chakra does that brat have?" I was just as shocked as she was. You need a lot of chakra to perform Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Even the Akatsuki members can only make about ten or so.

"I think you should make a note of that," I said weakly.

Naruto soon proved that he also had a decent mind for strategy, tricking Neji into believing that one of the clones was his real body. Of course, he displayed a weakness as well: as the match continued, he became increasingly agitated by Neji's taunts. _Sooner or later, he'll get angry enough to make a mistake. That's why shinobi are trained to suppress their emotions—such feelings can be a liability in battle._ Naruto seemed particularly angry with Neji for hurting someone named Hinata in the preliminary matches. _Idiot! Why is he bringing up that old history now? Holding grudges doesn't help you win a battle._ Then I looked over at Akisane, who was still writing in her notebook. _Still…if someone hurt her, I'd be just as angry._

Then Neji took off his forehead protector, revealing the cursed seal that marred his forehead. He told the story of the Head and Branch Families of the Hyuuga house, and of his father's sacrifice. He said that the cursed seal represented a caged bird, one whose destiny of imprisonment and servitude was determined at birth and engraved into its very cells. When he finished his speech, I glanced to the side and saw that Akisane had stopped writing. Her brow was furrowed, and she looked as though she was deep in thought. "What's wrong?"

"Do you think…do you think if our families had survived that we would have grown up like that boy? Would we have been made into caged birds for the sake of protecting our bloodlines?"

I thought about that for a moment. Among families with powerful hereditary abilities, protection of the bloodline was paramount. Children from those families grew up with rigid rules. Every activity was monitored. Careers were chosen for them. Marriages were arranged to maximize the chance that the next generation would carry the bloodline limit even more strongly. "Maybe. But what would have happened, what might have been, is of no consequence to the present. We're _not _caged birds. We're birds that have never known the terror of a cage, flying free under the night sky, while a red moon rises."

Finally, the Kyuubi kid defeated the Hyuuga, displaying incredible stamina and determination. As I remembered the jinchuuriki that had been captured on the day I first met Akatsuki's Leader, lying dead on the floor of Headquarters, I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for this Naruto person. He had such an unshakable spirit, it was sad to think of him ending up the same way. But I also remembered what our Leader had said on that day: _"A shinobi, no matter how young, accepts the risk of dying and the necessity of killing. And this is something we must do, for the sake of our dreams."_ Looking down at the victorious blond-haired boy, I thought, _I'm sorry that it must be this way. But this is something we must do, for the sake of our precious people's dream._

We were expecting the next fight to be the one Itachi's brother was participating in, but he appeared to be late for some reason. Instead, the next fight was between a girl from the Sand and a shadow-user from Leaf. Their fight started out boring, but it soon became clear that the Leaf contestant was a superb strategist. To the surprise of everyone in the arena, he forfeited the match just when it seemed like he had won.

Finally, as the crowd's impatience reached its peak, Sasuke arrived. He looked almost exactly like a younger version of Itachi, except that he had shorter hair. His opponent was an intimidating-looking guy from Sand.

"GO SASUKE-KUN! DON'T LOSE TO THAT GUY!" yelled a very loud blond girl from higher up in the bleachers.

"YEAH SASUKE-KUN! BEAT HIM UP!" shouted another girl, this one with pink hair.

_What is it with the Uchihas and women?_ A thunderous cheer from the crowd indicated that Sasuke was by far the favorite in this match. The Sand kid, however, was no slouch. He had a jutsu that created a shield of sand around him, deflecting all attacks. Suddenly, Sasuke stepped up his speed, darting past the sand shield and kicking the Sand boy across the arena. The Sand boy responded by tightening the sand shield, forming it into a perfect sphere in which he hid.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Akisane remarked.

"He's probably hoping to tire Sasuke out. When Sasuke expends most of his chakra trying to break through that sphere, the Sand kid will come out and kick his ass."

Sasuke, meanwhile, had retreated to the very top of the arena wall. "How many tomoes does he have in his eyes? Can you see?" I asked.

Akisane squinted and raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "Two in each, I think. Not as strong as his brother."

"Well, gee, what a shock. _No one_'s as strong as his brother."

"Look, look! What's he doing?" The cry was echoed around the stadium as a ball of lightning appeared in Sasuke's hand. He plummeted off the wall of the arena, making a beeline for the Sand kid. As he ran, the lightning in his hand carved a huge gouge in the arena wall.

"I…um…I think we might want to let Itachi-san know his brother has a jutsu that powerful."

Sasuke collided with the sand sphere, plunging his glowing hand into it. A shout of pain was heard from within the sphere, and the crowd rose to its feet. I stood up as well, but stumbled as the vision overcame me. _Feathers, falling from the sky. Everyone falling asleep. An explosion on the platform where the two Kages were sitting._ "Akisane-san, prepare to dispel genjutsu immediately!"

"What?" Already, the first few white feathers were drifting down onto the stadium. Akisane's eyes glazed over, and her head started to droop.

Quickly, I clasped my hands together, fighting the drowsiness that I was starting to feel. "Release!" My head cleared, and Akisane blinked tiredly as though just waking up from sleep.

"What the hell was that?"

"Genjutsu," I explained. "Someone's about to attack the village."

Who exactly this "someone" was soon became clear. An explosion rocked the platform where the Hokage and Kazekage had been watching the match, and Sound and Sand ninjas began running into the stadium. They attacked the few shinobi spectators who had managed to dispel the genjutsu.

"Orochimaru," I whispered. "Dammit, that bastard has the worst timing ever. He couldn't wait until we were safely out of Konoha?"

"Tobi-san," Akisane said in a strange voice. "If Orochimaru's here…there's a good chance Kimimaro's with him."

For a minute, anger flooded through me. Kimimaro, the boy I had once considered my best friend. Kimimaro, who had been part of our three-man team. Kimimaro, who owed his life to the Akatsuki just like we did. Kimimaro, who had betrayed us and almost killed me. But I shook my head, "No. We have a mission to complete. This fight between Orochimaru and Konoha isn't something we should interfere in."

"But he betrayed the Akatsuki! We can't just stand by and let him do whatever he wants!"

"We have to get this information back to the Akatsuki. If they capture Kyuubi, they can take out Orochimaru and Kimimaro easily."

"But…"

Finally, I said the one thing that I knew would convince her. "Itachi-san specifically said that we're not here to fight, only to observe. What would he think of us if we disobeyed his orders?"

"…Fine. Let's go."

Of course, the Sound and Sand ninja didn't make that easy. We got out of the stadium without incident, but quickly discovered that the entire village was overrun with enemy shinobi who seemed to think that we were Konoha citizens. The fact that we appeared to be civilians didn't seem to matter to them. Naturally, most of them were no match for us, but having to fight our way out of Konoha was still pretty troublesome.

"You know, I think I've discovered the one and only advantage of this outfit," Akisane commented after we killed our fifth group of attackers.

"What's that?"

"You can hide enough weapons in it to supply a small army, and no one will notice."

Finally, we made it out of the village and to the location where we were supposed to meet with Itachi and Kisame. We found them perched high in a tree, watching the ongoing battle between the Sand, Sound, and Leaf shinobi.

"Hmm, it looks like this may be easier than we thought. They'll probably be weakened by the fight and won't be able to put up as much resistance," Kisame pointed out. Then he sighed in a disappointed sort of way, looking towards the plumes of smoke rising from the village. "I wish I was there. I'd love to teach Orochimaru a lesson."

Itachi looked through the information we had gathered. "This Naruto doesn't look like anything we can't handle. Interesting…my brother's learned the Chidori?"

"Hey," I said excitedly. "We can help you capture the Kyuubi!"

Itachi shook his head. "This task was entrusted to us alone."

* * *

As it turned out, Itachi and Kisame failed to capture the Kyuubi. They didn't seem too concerned about this though, apparently feeling that there would be plenty of opportunities to do so in the future. Deidara and Sasori, on the other hand, had more success. They discovered that the Sand boy who had participated in that fateful Chuunin Exam was the container of Shukaku. Even more impressive, he had been named Kazekage after his father died at Orochimaru's hands.

Deidara defeated Sabaku no Gaara in battle, and brought him back to one of the Akatsuki's many hideouts for the extraction of the Shukaku. Unfortunately for us, Leaf and Sand had patched up their relationship after the invasion at the Chuunin Exam, and sent two teams of their best ninja to rescue Gaara. They arrived too late to save his life, but engaged Sasori and Deidara in combat. This fight provoked one of the most terrifying visions I have ever had: Sasori falling lifeless to the ground with two swords piercing the biological core that kept him alive, and Deidara exploding in a blast of light and sound. Akisane and I raced in different directions, searching for Zetsu. In the deep recesses of a forest in the Fire Country, I found him. "Zetsu-san! Something's gone wrong; Sasori-san and Deidara-san are going to die!"

"What? Have you seen this in a vision?"

I nodded, and told him what I had witnessed. "We'd better hurry to their aid, then," his light side said.

"**If those Konoha bastards hurt either of our comrades, we'll rip them apart,"** his dark side contributed.

Zetsu went ahead, merging with the trees and ground as a faster method of travel. Lacking that option, I simply ran, faster than I'd ever run in my life. As I ran, I remembered.

"_Zetsu-san, why are some people born with bloodline limits?"_

"_Those who carry an advanced bloodline have a special purpose. They are the ones who will leave a permanent mark on the world. They are the ones who have the potential to change the future."_

What Zetsu had said was more true for me than for anyone else. I didn't have just any old advanced bloodline, after all—I had one that gave me a unique opportunity to change the future by revealing it to me beforehand. Never had I wanted to change the future so much as at that moment. Drawing chakra into the bottoms of my feet, I propelled myself from one branch to the next, willing myself to move faster.

As soon as I arrived at the hideout, I knew that Deidara and Sasori had lost the battle. The boulder that normally blocked the entrance was no more than a pile of gravel, and a hole had been blasted in the wall of the cave. Many of the trees in the area had been felled as if by a massive explosion. Slowly, I walked into the cave to find Zetsu already there. He was standing over a body. "This looks like the real one," he said. I looked down, and at my feet saw Sasori's ring, which must have fallen off his finger at some point during the battle. I knelt and picked it up. Zetsu turned to stare at me, and I was sure that despite my mask, he knew I was on the verge of tears.

_A shinobi must keep emotions on the inside, no matter what the situation, and must possess a heart that never shows tears._ The old mantra came back to me, and I tried to pretend that the sorrow I felt didn't exist. "Hey, I found his ring! Can I join Akatsuki now?" I tossed the ring into the air, attempting to appear light-hearted, but my trembling fingers betrayed me and I dropped it.

"**Do you really think it's that easy?" **Zetsu admonished me. Then his other side took over, and I saw an expression of compassion cross his face. He knew how much I was hurting, and how scared I was for Deidara's fate. "We can let him join. Tobi's a good boy," he said, trying to cheer me up.

After a few minutes, Zetsu guided me outside to look for Deidara. Zetsu spotted the arm lying on the ground before I did. The ring was still attached, and there was a large crater nearby. "It…it looks like the cause of death was definitely an explosion, Zetsu-san." Apparently, Deidara had sacrificed himself to destroy his enemy.

I reached down to pick up Deidara's hand, only to hear a voice behind me saying, "Drop it now!"

_He's not dead!_ It immediately became clear to me what had happened: what I had seen exploding in my vision was a Kage Bunshin or something similar, not the real Deidara. "Ooh, you're alive!" I exclaimed, overjoyed. "Are you sure you're…ok?"

Deidara apparently mistook my concern for sarcasm, wrapped his legs around my neck, and squeezed. I was finding it hard to breathe, but I was so happy to see him alive that I didn't really mind.

* * *

Akisane had arrived soon after, just as Deidara was continuing to choke me with his legs. "I'd ask what's going on here, but I'm not sure I really want to know," she commented wryly. Then she turned serious. "Deidara-san, you're injured! Tobi-san, stop fooling around and help him out! And where's Sasori-san?"

Solemnly, we returned to Headquarters, carrying Sasori's body and Deidara's arm. I don't know exactly what Zetsu and Deidara were thinking, but Akisane and I were in shock. Even compared to the other Akatsuki members, Sasori was exceptionally strong. Itachi and the Leader were the only ones who could beat him in a fight. He had even conquered the Mountain Country in which we resided, defeating their entire army by himself. The idea that he had been overpowered by a chuunin and a retiree was unthinkable.

We were in for another shock when we returned to Headquarters. Our Leader wanted to replace Sasori as soon as possible, and he also felt that it was time to replace Orochimaru. This in itself was no great revelation. The real stunner was _who_ he wanted to replace the two former members.

"You know, I always thought I'd be happy when this day came," I said to Akisane as I tugged on my new Akatsuki robes. "It's been my dream to join the Akatsuki for so long, and I always imagined I'd be ecstatic when I achieved it. But this…I don't feel happy at all."

"I know what you mean," she sighed. "Since Itachi-san joined, the Akatsuki was completed, so I guess I knew that the death or departure of a member was the only way we'd get to join. But it always seemed so abstract. It's different when you realize it's _real_."

"This isn't the way I wanted it to happen," I whispered, my voice breaking.

"Hey!" another voice interjected. Both of us looked up to see Deidara standing in the doorway. There was a fierce look on his face unlike any expression I'd ever seen there before. "If you two want to live up to Sasori-danna's memory, you should concentrate on finishing what he started, yeah. He was more precious to me than anyone else in the world, but I'm not going to cry for him, because he'd say that crying is just a waste of time and energy. Dry your tears and hold your heads high, as Akatsuki members should, yeah."

* * *

Since that time, many things have happened. The locations of the three-, four-, and seven-tailed bijuu have been determined. Akatsuki has spread its spies throughout the Five Great Shinobi Countries, building up an intelligence network surpassing that of any country. Itachi has become more and more pensive as the deadline for rescuing his brother from Orochimaru approaches. Akisane and Zetsu have captured the seven-tailed jinchuuriki, and Akisane's ring has been activated to link her to the phoenix bijuu contained within it. All the members have continued to amass an arsenal of powerful jutsus and ancient secrets. The general atmosphere has been like the calm before the storm. For now, we operate under the radar of most shinobi nations, but sooner or later, we will start to move openly. When that time comes, the conflict will be so great that the foundation of the entire world will shake.

Sometimes, that thought frightens me. There's great danger ahead, and I know that better than most people because I've _seen_ it. There are some things I've seen that I hope come true. There are other things I've seen that I would give anything to prevent.

I've seen Kakuzu fall in battle, his throat cut open by two blades wielded by a shinobi with a thick beard and a cigarette clutched in his mouth. I've seen that same shinobi get blasted backwards by a wave of energy that radiates outward from Hidan as he cries out to his god, demanding vengeance for the death of his partner.

I've seen a great being with three tails rise from the sea before me, half turtle and half squid. Its baleful eyes gaze at me, and I wonder whether I've gotten myself into something greater than I can handle.

I've seen Akisane plunge a kunai into her own thigh and collect the resulting tears of pain in a glass vial. The ring on her hand is glowing, linking her to the power of the seven-tailed phoenix bijuu, Suzaku. She knows, as I do, that the tears of a phoenix can heal any injury—even blindness caused by overuse of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

I've seen the walls of the Sound Village crumble, torn to pieces by vines thicker than tree trunks, while Zetsu stands in the shadows.

I've seen Itachi locked in battle with his younger brother. Sasuke's eyes are the color of fresh blood, his hair is white, and a pair of grotesque wings has sprouted from his back.

And finally, the most terrifying of my visions: I've seen Akisane and I facing off against a bald Leaf jounin with a horribly scarred face. Ibiki binds Akisane in place with a wood jutsu, then gathers a tremendous amount of chakra into one hand. It's enough to destroy a major organ if it's forced into the body at the right location. As he rushes towards her, I sprint in their direction, every nerve still on fire from the medical jutsu he's just used on me. Ibiki is moving too fast to stop, and his hand slams into my chest instead of hers. The chakra fills my heart, and in a single moment of overwhelming pain, it explodes. The last thing I see before I die is Ibiki's shocked expression—he hasn't thought that an Akatsuki member would be capable of self-sacrifice—and the last thing I hear is Akisane screaming my name.

You might think that with the ability to see the future, nothing could ever go wrong for me. Anytime I saw something bad happen, I would take steps to change it. Unfortunately, life doesn't work like that. I failed to prevent Orochimaru and Kimimaro from betraying the Akatsuki. I failed to prevent Sasori's death. Now, I wonder if this is going to be another one of those times. Will I be able to prevent my own death, and save both myself and my best friend? Or will I fail again, dooming one or both of us to die? I can see the future, but can I change it?

* * *

A/N: Almost done! The next (and final) chapter will be the epilogue, which picks up where the prologue left off. I'm going on vacation for a week, so it might not be posted for a little while. I've really been having fun writing this (although the more we see of Tobi in the manga, the more I feel like I made him more competent than he actually is). I hope you're all enjoying reading it as much as I'm enjoying reading it.

I got the idea for the phoenix tears thing from the Harry Potter series (which, like Naruto, I sadly don't own). Apparently, one of the demons in Japanese mythology is a phoenix, named Suzaku.


	6. Chapter 6

_Epilogue: Shaping the Future_

Ibiki's hand hit my chest, and I felt a powerful chakra enter my body. It forced its way into my heart, swelling that organ beyond all tolerance. I screamed in pain as it blew apart, and I dropped to the ground. My eyesight was fading out around the edges of my field of vision, and my breathing was labored. I've gotten pretty good at medical jutsu, but even my skill couldn't heal this injury—it was designed to be an instantly fatal wound.

"TOBI-SAN!" I could hear Akisane struggling, trying once more to free herself from the roots that bound her in place. "Tobi-san, don't die! Please! Dammit, if you die, I'll follow you to the afterlife and kick your ass! Tobi-san…please…"

_This…this is it. No more missions with Deidara-san. No more quiet afternoons watching the clouds. No more getting drunk on sake with Kisame-san and Hidan-san. No more making fun of Akisane-san for her crush on Itachi-san…No more chances to tell her that she's the most beautiful kunoichi in the world…Damn. What the hell good is this stupid bloodline if I can't even prevent my own death?_

"Tobi-san…" Dimly, I felt warm water dripping on me. It stung my wounds slightly, as though it was salty. Strangely enough, I wasn't in as much pain as I'd been just a few seconds ago. And the darkness around the edges of my peripheral vision was receding. And I could feel my heart beating again. _What…?_

Although she was still held in place by Ibiki's jutsu, Akisane had managed enough movement to lean over me. Her Akatsuki ring was glowing, indicating that the link between her and Suzaku was active. Tears were streaming down her face, falling onto my wounds.

Phoenix tears.

"How…how is this possible?" Ibiki sounded stunned. I almost felt sorry for the mental overload he must be experiencing. First, an Akatsuki member sacrifices himself to save another, something he never would have expected from one of us. Then another member demonstrates the ability to heal what should be a mortal wound just by crying. Definitely not the best day of his life.

Suddenly, I realized that the glow of chakra from Akisane's ring had spread to encompass her whole body. It flared outward from her back in two shapes that vaguely suggested wings, and flowed into a long tail that waved behind her. When she looked up at Ibiki, her eyes were as red as Itachi's. "**You. Hurt. My. Friend.**" The raw killing intent of a demon, channeled through a human body, made Ibiki step back. The roots holding Akisane in place burst into flame, being instantly reduced to small piles of ash.

"Ibiki-san, meet Suzaku."

Ibiki's shocked expression changed to one of resolve. "You Akatsuki seek power at all costs, but you fail to realize that the purpose of power is to protect others, not to serve your own desires. People like you don't deserve to be called shinobi."

"**Baka! We _do _use our power to protect others! We use it to protect the people who are precious to us, our comrades!" **Akisane's words echoed, Suzaku's voice underlying her own.

I decided to explain further. "The other members of the Akatsuki are precious people to us. We fight for those people, work for those people, and seek to make their dreams come true. That is our dream. It is a dream we would die—or kill—to protect." My voice became sharper, and my fists clenched. "Of the eight other members of our organization, Akisane-san is the most precious to me. You made her cry, and that is something I cannot forgive."

To my great surprise, Ibiki smiled grimly. "I never would have thought any members of the Akatsuki would care about each other. Maybe you two really are worthy of being called ninjas…but I will still kill you."

"**You can try.**" Akisane ran through a sequence of seals, and Ibiki's eyes widened as he realized what it was. "**Fire Element: Grand Fireball Technique!**" The Grand Fireball Technique is an Uchiha specialty. Few non-Uchihas can perform it as well as an Uchiha. Of course, being taught the jutsu by one of the two remaining Uchihas helps. So does being linked to a demon with power over fire.

The blast of flame shot towards Ibiki, scorching the grass and producing a wave of heat. I watched Ibiki shift his weight from one foot to the other, preparing to dodge. This told me what direction he was going to move in, and I intercepted him. As he darted out of the path of the fire, he ran directly into me. Using one of the many medical jutsu I had learned, I sent a small flow of chakra into his heart, disrupting its rhythm. Ibiki collapsed to the ground, clutching his left shoulder as though he was having a heart attack—which he was.

I looked back at Akisane and saw that Suzaku's chakra still flowed around her body. "**Let's go,**" she said. "**We don't want to let the four-tails get away.**"

I shook my head. "The chakra levels you're emitting have probably already attracted every shinobi in the area. They'll all be on alert; we can't take the four-tails now."

"**And what can a few ANBU do against the power of a bijuu?**" Looking at Akisane at that moment was like staring into the heart of a wildfire—a wild, untameable power, beautiful in its own way, but also deadly.

"Think about it!" I implored, mentally cursing the tendency of the bijuu to make the people linked to them more impulsive. "After we defeat the jinchuuriki, we have to get back to the hideout safely. If we use up all our chakra now, how will we outrun pursuing ninja? You can't keep up this level of power indefinitely, and I don't have nearly as big a chakra reserve as you do!"

Slowly, the glow of chakra around her faded, and when she next spoke, her voice had returned to normal. "Deidara-san has discovered the location of the three-tails. You can go with him and take that bijuu instead."

"Agreed. Now let's get out of here before Baldy's friends show up." We leapt into the trees and made our escape, leaving Ibiki unconscious on the ground behind us.

"Can you sense anyone following us?" Akisane asked as we sprinted through the forest.

"No." I had been deep in thought since our battle with Ibiki. Most of the Akatsuki express a philosophy of extreme individualism. They believe that reliance on others makes one weak. Yet, if this is truly what they think, why do they travel in pairs? Why is every member assigned a partner? This was a question that had puzzled me for some time, and I thought that my recent near-death experience had given me an answer.

When I first saw the vision of my own death, I wondered if there was anything I could do to prevent it. "Can I save myself?" I had asked. The answer to that question had turned out to be, "No." I hadn't been able to save myself. And Akisane hadn't been able to save herself either.

But the two of us had saved each other.

_That_ is why the Akatsuki membership is divided into pairs. _That _is why we don't complete our missions alone. Because there are some things two people can do that one can't.

One person, working alone, can't change the future. But two, working together, can. And nine people united can do anything.

"Tobi-san?" Akisane was looking at me questioningly. "Before, when you told that guy that I was more precious to you than anyone else…did you really mean that?"

I reached up and pulled my mask off, exposing my face so that I could look Akisane in the eyes. "Yeah, I did."

Then she did something she'd never done before. She reached over and gently squeezed my hand.

My name is Sawada Tobi, and I can see the future. Just yesterday, I realized something that I think might change my life. I don't just have the ability to _see_ the future. I also have the ability to _change_ it.

A/N: Hooray, another story finished! I hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry this update took a while--I've been away for a week. Also, the document edit function seems to currently be having trouble with section breaks, so the epilogue is all one big section--sorry about that.

Many thanks to everyone who reviewed!


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